Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Trade News with Publishers Lunch

Nielsen has sold the BookScan
service in the US only, along with the related services that comprise Nielsen
Book in the US (including PubTrack Digital and the Books & Consumers
surveys) to NPD Group, based in Port Washington, Long Island, for undisclosed
terms. Those services will comprise the new NPD Book practice group, adding to
the company's data services for over 20 industries.

Nielsen Book worldwide svp and managing director Jonathan Stolper will serve as
president of NPD Book, and the new owner has offered employment to all of the
US-based commercial Nielsen Book employees. As part of the sale, Nielsen will
continue to provide operational support for the acquired services during a
transition period in which the parties say "there will be no change of
service."

At least for now, Nielsen continues to own and operate Nielsen BookScan and the
related product lines in the UK (where the group also serves as the national
ISBN registration agency) and 8 other countries around the world.

Meanwhile, our own related service, PM
Bookscan, will also continue as usual, offering Bookscan data to literary
agents, authors and other qualified independent book publishing professionals.

Bloomsbury announced
that chairman Anthony
Salz will step down from his position and exit the board at the
annual meeting in July, with a successor to be named later. As of March 1,
managing director of IOP Publishing Steven
Hall will join the company's board and, as part of a regular
rotation policy, Faber chief executive Stephen
Page will leave the board after three years of service.

Forthcoming
Doubleday Children's has acquired an unfinished fairy tale by Mark Twain that
author Philip Stead and illustrator Erin Stead have expanded into a 152-page
illustrated "storybook for all ages." They will publish THE
PURLOINING OF PRINCE OLEOMARGARINE on September 26 in an announced 250,000-copy
first printing. The book is based on sixteen pages of handwritten notes by
Twain, recorded after he told his daughters a story one night in 1879 while the
family was staying in Paris. The notes were spotted by Twain scholar John Bird
while conducting research at the Mark Twain Papers & Project at the
University of California at Berkeley.

In other children's book announcements, Candlewick Press will publish two-time
Newbery Award winner Kate
DiCamillo's first picture book in almost 10 years, LA LA LA: A
Story of Hope, illustrated by Jaime Kim, on the same day in September as the
Twain adaptation. The "nearly wordless" book will "follow a
lonely young girl as she journeys from one fantastical world to another,
sharing her unique song in a poignant quest for friendship and
connection."